sports dictionary Dance sports - KUPALA DANCES

Dance sports KUPALA DANCES (from the name of the Slavic god Kupadlo) ancient dances, of pagan origin, on the days of the summer solstice (on Ivan Kupala, St. John the Baptist), which took place among the Slavs and other peoples of Europe. On the island of Chios (Greece), after the morning church service, the peasants gathered in the open ... and spent the afternoon imitating the "turning sun" in round dances (Calendar customs and rituals in foreign Europe); In the villages of Shumadia (Serbia), bonfires were lit by girls who gathered for this purpose at night on the hills. At bonfires ... girls with wreaths on their heads danced and sang ritual songs until sunrise (ibid.); In Portugal (on St. Johns Day). St. John the Baptist) boys and girls, and sometimes only girls, dance around the bonfire, making undoubtedly erotic gestures and emitting piercing screams (ibid.); In the Estonian summer solstice festival, there was a dance of naked women (R. Goodland. Bibliography of sexual rites and customs).